By Lorraine Farquharson
NEW YORK, Sep 14 2022 – Cross-continent vacations seem to be the norm once again with the lessening of COVID-19 while new cities are being built with skyscraping $4M condos shooting up in a matter of months, and just-out-of-University millennials launching into their careers with minimum start-off salaries of $75K.

Sounds pretty good.

Those scenarios present a shocking oxymoron to newly-released facts that shockingly, 90 percent of the world’s nations are currently undergoing gravely altered lives due to a downward spiral of human development over the past two years.

According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s annual Human Development Report (HDR) and Index (HDI), released Sept. 8, the percentage greatly exceeds any other reversals during the global financial crisis – setting the globe roughly six years backward. Therefore, the organization makes a solid global call for collective action.

Results of the survey show that for the first time in 32 years of calculating the world’s well-being, nine out of every 10 countries have fallen backwards in health, education, and standard of living. The organization says that although there are many reasons for the degradation, continuous effect of back-to-back crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are the most to be blamed.

Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, pinpointed areas showing that human development has fallen back to its 2016 levels and that world leaders find themselves collectively paralyzed in making changes. Steiner added that the current state of regress thwarts the U.N.’s 2030 deadline at achieving the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Other draining factors include the exorbitant increase in cost of living; unemployment; artificial intelligence chosen over human activity rather than using it to maximize existing tasks.

There is also digitalization – “a double-edged sword for mental wellbeing;” mental distress, which constrains freedom to achieve plus the climate and energy crises. But those get easily sutured up by subsidizing fossil fuels; lack of access to adequate resources, as well as persistent and growing inequalities.

These all negatively affect and delay long-term goals as well as necessary systemic changes, and causes insecurity in both the leaders as well as the population.

Speaking during the launch of the HDR, António Guterres U.N. Secretary General said the current crises creates an uneven economic recovery from the pandemic and is further exacerbating inequalities, leaving entire regions behind.

“This is triggering spikes in food and energy prices, driving up inflation and drowning vulnerable countries in debt,” he said.

The most under-developed nations in South America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia, are hardest hit. For example, Pakistan – which already had a very low rating on the index, has fallen 7 places lower. It now ranks 161, on the HDI, out of 192 countries, while Afghanistan rings in at the 180th position.

The Report, titled “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World” was released just a day prior to the UNDP’s high-level assembly of global leaders, the SDG Media Summit, highlighting those who are driving social change to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Isis Jaraud-Darnault, Political Coordinator of The Permanent Mission of France to the U.N., spoke on France’s participation with the European Union to alleviate woes in the entire Horn of Africa region.

France is especially aiding the food crisis in Somalia by dispatching a Special Envoy to the country, as well as keeping its promise to provide continuous financial aid (which has amounted to €61 million in 2022), and also launching a humanitarian airlift to provide emergency food and medicine, especially to areas hard to reach by road. “The international community must mobilize”, Jaraud-Darnault said. “France is taking its full part in this aid.”

“Today, with one-third of people worldwide feeling stressed and less than a third of people worldwide trusting others, we face major roadblocks to adopting policies that work for people and planet,” says Steiner. “There is a skyrocketing perception of insecurity in most countries, even some high-ranking HDI ones.”

Despite the dark clouds, despair, doubts that grip many countries, along with the fact that recovery is uneven and partial, some seem to be dusting off their heels and getting back on their feet.

The UNDP holds onto the hope of positivity and promise by expressing the sentiments that if futures are reimagined, refreshed and renewed; pathways carved and molded; plans, goals and values are developed then there has to be an uptick – as nothing lasts forever – not even the bad.

Guterres’ reiterated the Report’s clearly-stated steps forward to quench this conundrum, which was to “Double down on human development and advance policies around ‘The Three I-s’ – investment, insurance, and innovation.” He added, “We must invest in global public goods; expand insurance through social safety nets; and innovate, fostering new pathways and technologies.”

The UNDP report depicts a totally overwhelmed global society staggering from crisis to crisis. Steiner adds. “This risks heading towards increasing deprivation and injustice and in a world defined by uncertainty, we need a renewed sense of global solidarity to tackle our inter connected interconnected, common challenges.”

Lorraine Farquharson is a writer / essayist and an investigative freelance journalist seeking to raise awareness and lessen the woes of humanitarian issues. She has travelled to more than 30 countries and written articles for several international news organizations based at the United Nations.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Philippe Benoit
PARIS, Sep 14 2022 – One third of Pakistan is now under water. The scope of the destruction is difficult to fathom, not just the enormity of the devastation its people are facing today, but also the damage to its infrastructure, its buildings, and its economy that will weigh heavily on the country for months and even years to come.

While experts may debate the extent to which greenhouse gas emissions impacting Pakistan’s weather patterns may be to blame, the scale of this devastation shows the shortcomings of invoking notions of “adaptation” as a meaningful strategy to respond to climate change’s destructive force.

Pakistan is facing the type of large-scale destruction that is seen in wars — and not just any war, but total warfare that consumes entire regions and countries. This is what many countries suffered in World War II and others in more recent conflicts. In Pakistan, the cause isn’t an army, but a changing climate fueled at least in part by the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions clogging our atmosphere.

While technocrats and politicians of the past landed on this terminology of “adaptation”, what today’s events in Pakistan show is that you cannot truly adapt to climate change and its potential for widespread devastation — especially developing countries that do not have the financial resources to counter extreme weather events

A core strategic element of the international effort to address climate change is “adaptation,” namely action “to respond to the impacts of climate change that are already happening, as well as prepare for future impacts.” This operates in tandem with “mitigation” which focuses on reducing GHG emissions.

Because our historical and future GHG emissions will produce some degree of climate change, we indeed do need to fund measures to respond to the inescapable changes in weather patterns and climate more broadly – even as, through mitigation action, we seek to lower our GHG emissions to limit how much our climate will change.

Yet, the recent events in Pakistan illustrate the shortcomings of an adaptation strategy in the face of widespread devastation. Any notion of “adapting” to these events is tragically misplaced. We cannot, just as countries cannot adapt to the destruction of war. They can resist, fight, look to recover, but the tragedy they suffer cannot be undone.

And while the number of lives lost because of climate change arguably may presently be smaller than that wrought by war, the capacity of both to destroy property, livelihoods and economies is similar.

The goals and elements proposed by the experts within the “adaptation” effort are the right ones. We must look to limit the losses generated by changes in our climate, to accelerate the recovery from extreme climate events, and even seek potential opportunities.

We must invest in climate resilient infrastructure, drought-resistant crops and other strengthened agricultural practices, better weather forecasting capacity, tools to reconnect power supply more quickly, and in a multitude of other measures. And these efforts need to be adapted to the changes in our climate. Moreover, as climate specialists and others advocate, many more resources need to go into this area.

But while technocrats and politicians of the past landed on this terminology of “adaptation”, what today’s events in Pakistan show is that you cannot truly adapt to climate change and its potential for widespread devastation — especially developing countries that do not have the financial resources to counter extreme weather events.

Even at a smaller scale across both developing and wealthier advanced economies, the rising number and severity of localized wildfires, heatwaves and floods are causing irreparable damage. People suffer loss. Although they might recover and rebuild their homes or businesses, there has still been harm and too often tragedy. People die because of climate change. Too much is lost forever.

There has been growing discussion in the international climate arena around payments for “loss and damage” caused by climate change.  This type of funding, including for additional adaptation measures, can help — but it will not remedy the problem, especially given the potentially massive magnitude of the destruction.

Pakistan cannot be expected to adapt to having one third of its country under water. Families should not be expected to adapt to the tragedy climate change can inflict.

Let’s find another term that better conveys what is truly within our reach in responding to climate change so that we can have a clearer appreciation of the climate threats we face. The global community can indeed work to reduce the loss people will suffer and do a better job at helping them to recover and rebuild. But truly “adapting” to the devastation that climate change can cause is a dangerously misleading notion.

Yes, there must be additional funding for adaptation and to help poorer countries respond to climate disasters. But what the events in Pakistan show is that so much more needs to be done to reduce GHG emissions and thereby limit the degree of climate change and accompanying destructive forces people will need to face.

Philippe Benoit has over 20 years working on international energy, climate and development issues, including management positions at the World Bank and the International Energy Agency. He is currently research director at Global Infrastructure Analytics and Sustainability 2050.